Kent State Professor Investigated for Involvement With ISIS

Julio Pino, who is a Muslim convert since 2000, has been under investigation by a joint terrorism task force for the past 18 months, an FBI special agent told the University paper. The investigation seeks to determine whether Pino has been attempting to recruit students to join the Islamic State.

Several faculty members and over 20 students were questioned Tuesday about Pino's alleged activity, the agent said.

"Kent State is fully cooperating with the FBI," said Kent State spokesman Eric Mansfield. "As this is an ongoing investigation, we will have no further comment. The FBI has assured Kent State that there is no threat to campus.”

Pino has been a controversial figure for the nearly two decades of his academic career because of his support for terrorism and his outspoken criticism of Israel and U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East.

In 2002, for example, he wrote a eulogy for the Kent State paper celebrating the life of an 18-year-old suicide bomber. In 2005 and 2006 he wrote letters to the paper criticizing American policy in the Middle East. In 2009, the Secret Service interviewed Pino about his political beliefs. In 2011, he shouted “Death to Israel!” at a public lecture by a former Israeli diplomat. and in 2014, he blamed colleagues for causing the deaths of 1,400 Palestinians, according to The Foreign Desk.